Brazil

Ride the cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain or the cog train to the summit of Corcovado, where Christ the Redeemer looks out over Guanabara Bay, for some of the most dramatic urban views on the planet. Ipanema and Copacabana anchor the beach culture that defines daily life here, while the bohemian streets of Santa Teresa and the samba schools of Rio's Carnival reveal the city's deeper creative pulse. Few cities pair natural drama with urban energy quite like Rio.

Far less visited than the Amazon but arguably richer in wildlife, the Pantanal's seasonal floodplains concentrate an extraordinary density of animals: jaguars prowling the riverbanks, giant otters fishing in family groups, and capybaras, caimans, and macaws at nearly every turn. Boat safaris and horseback rides through working cattle ranches turned eco-lodges offer some of the best wildlife viewing in South America, rivaling and often surpassing East Africa's game parks.

Riverboat expeditions from Manaus wind through flooded forest and blackwater tributaries, offering access to a rainforest so vast it produces its own weather. Spot pink river dolphins, howler monkeys, and hundreds of bird species with an experienced local guide, or spend a night in the canopy at a remote jungle lodge. This is Brazil at its most untouched, best experienced slowly and with time to let the forest reveal itself.

The pastel-colored colonial facades of Salvador's Pelourinho district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, set the stage for a city built by and for Afro-Brazilian culture: capoeira circles in public squares, Candomblé ceremonies rooted in West African tradition, and some of the country's best cuisine, built on dendê palm oil, seafood, and chili. Salvador's Carnival, older and arguably more authentic than Rio's, draws crowds for its street-level trio elétrico parades.